The Prime Ministerís Office yet again overruled a suggestion of the Home Ministry and appointed RN Ravi, chairman of Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), as the new interlocutor for Naga peace talks.

ďThe government has appointed RN Ravi, chairman, Joint Intelligence Committee, as the new official interlocutor and Government of India representative for Naga peace talks,Ē an official notification said on Friday.

Official sources said Union home minister Rajnath Singh had recommended Ajit Lal, who had retired as chairman of JIC in July 2014. However, after deliberating for several weeks, the PMO overruled the recommendation and appointed Ravi as the interlocutor for Nagal talks. The reason behind appointment of Ravi was his expertise in Northeast affairs as he was looking after the region during his tenure in the Intelligence Bureau from where he retired as a special director in 2012.

Earlier, the PMO had overruled the recommendation of the home ministry for appointment of Alok Singh, an IPS officer, as the private secretary to the home minister on the ground that he had served as a PS to former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid. Ravi was appointed JIC chairman early this week. His appointment came seven months after the last interlocutor, R S Pandey, resigned from the post. As the new interlocutor, Ravi will have to negotiate with Naga rebel group NSCN(IM), who had blamed the previous Manmohan Singh government of failure to evolve a solution to the insurgency problem in Nagaland.